Turks send troops into northern Iraq
KIRKUK, Iraq — The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation today, Kurdish officials said. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk, the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields.
The troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil, said Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces.
About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border at 3 a.m., said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government. He said the region was a deserted mountainous frontier area.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment on reports of the Turkish operation.
The Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, has battled for autonomy for southeastern Turkey for more than two decades and uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.
It was not clear how long the Turkish soldiers who entered Iraq today would stay, but a Turkish government official said they were sent as "reinforcements" to existing Turkish troops stationed further inside Iraq.
"They are going there as reinforcements. They are not returning," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
About 1,200 Turkish military monitors have operated in northern Iraq since 1996 with permission from local authorities. A tank battalion has been stationed at a former airport at the border town of Bamerni and a few other military outposts were scattered in the region. Ankara rotates the troops there.
Asked about a reported clash between the Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels inside Iraq, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul said: "From now on, whatever is necessary in the struggle against terrorism, it is being done."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the incursion "is not acceptable and will lead to complicated problems," and he added that the Iraqi government was given no warning about the incursion.
